Gender Quotas Database

Constitution of 2014

On 26 January 2014 the Tunisian Constituent Assembly adopted the new Constitution, which, among other key democratic achievements, provides solid guarantees for advancing women’s rights and equality between women and men in elected offices. Article 34 of the new Constitution provides that “the rights to election, voting and candidacy are guaranteed in accordance with the law. The State seeks to guarantee women’s representation in elected councils.”, and the Article 46 guarantees “equality of opportunities between women and men to have access to all levels of responsibility and in all fields. The state seeks to achieve equal representation for women and men in elected councils”.

In the following period, the Assembly deliberated on the new electoral law, and in early May 2014 adopted the new electoral law, providing for parity and alternation between women and men on parties’ candidate lists, though fell short of requiring that parties designate equal number of women and men as the leading candidates on the lists, which based on the experience of the 2011 elections, would increase the likelihood of more women candidates being elected as MPs from across various electoral districts.

The law is to be reviewed by the Provisional Authority for Ensuring the Constitutionality of Laws (L’instance Provisoire de Controle de la Constitutionnalite des Projets de Loi) and if approved, will be approved by the President. 

2011 Elections of the National Constituent Assembly

As a result of the newly introduced legislation for parity and alternation provisions in candidate lists, about 5000 women candidates participated in the 2011 National Constituent Assembly elections.

Although a positive development for the promotion of gender equality in Tunisia, the implementation of the principle of gender parity and the inclusion of such a high number of women candidates in party lists did not eventually result in equal representation of women in the National Constituent Assembly. Due to low district magnitude, it was very difficult for a party list to win more than one seat per constituency and 93 per cent of the candidate lists were headed by men. This resulted in women forming 27 per cent of the elected members of the Assembly.

According to IPU. "Following the example of the 2011 elections to the National Constituent Assembly, the 2014 electoral law required that electoral lists be presented on the basis of gender equality, with women and men alternating on the list. 68 women were elected (31%), up from 57 in 2011." (www.ipu.org)